Photonics Dictionary

Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light of different polarizations. In other words, when light passes through a...

Left- and right-hand circularly polarized beams that are produced at different velocities by passing plane-polarized light through an optical substance. When recombined, they exhibit different phases...

The optical phenomenon in which right circularly polarized light transmitted by an active medium travels at a different velocity than that of left circularly polarized light.

Birefringence of materials that is induced or altered by stress fields.

Anisotropy refers to the property of exhibiting different values or characteristics when measured in different directions. In various fields, including physics, materials science, and geology,...

A device containing two opposed quartz wedges of equal angle, one wedge being movable along its length by a micrometer screw. The wedges are cut so that their fast directions are along, and...

A characteristic of optical fiber used to calculate the fiber's ability to maintain polarization. The beat length describes the length required for the polarization to rotate 360 degrees. For a given...

Relative to the Cotton-Mouton effect, the magnetic birefringence constant that, when multiplied by pathlength and the square of the magnetic field strength, yields the phase difference between the...

A high-speed shutter, similar to a Kerr cell, that uses the birefringence produced in a liquid during the passage of an electric current through it to change the liquid's optical transmission...

Multimode straight fiber capable of transporting linearly polarized light with any incident polarization angle, and in which no form of internal stress can develop that could lead to birefringence.

A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path difference to create interference between split optical wavefronts. The...

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the fabrication of optical components and systems. These materials are characterized by...

A material that can rotate the polarization of light that passes through it. An optically active material exhibits different refractive indices for left- and right-circular polarizations (circular...

A combination of a polarizer and an analyzer that is used to detect birefringence or rotation of the plane of polarization of materials placed between them. Useful for the determination of stress...

Single-mode fiber that preserves the plane of polarization of the light launched into it as the beam propagates through its length. Also called polarization-maintaining fiber. The polarization is...

A device that uses nematic liquid crystals sandwiched between fused silica substrates to change the phase of polarized light. The cell is tunable from half-wave to zero retardation because variation...

In polarization-preserving optical fibers, the element used to induce birefringence. The SAP is highly doped to provide a different coefficient of expansion from the rest of the fiber material; when...

A liquid crystal display using the material in its supertwisted nematic phase; the birefringence of the liquid crystal results in a characteristic yellow or blue color, unless corrected.

The induced birefringence in isotropic gases that results when the gases are placed in strong fields.